


Taste your mettle

by LuckyPhantom



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Bakugou Katsuki is Bad at Feelings, Bakugou and Midoriya fight, Bakugou is fucking smart, F/F, I've probably butchered the pacific rim mechanics but oh well, Like, M/M, Mental Link, Mind Reading, Multi, Rivalry, Swearing, Toxic Relationship, all characters are like 20, an actual genius, if i continue the fic i'll add more tags and warnings, no beta we die like men, or older, our bois beating up a Kaiju, ships if I continue the fic :), so is midoriya, technically
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:06:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29857137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuckyPhantom/pseuds/LuckyPhantom
Summary: For years, the Jager program has been fighting off the Kaiju that have crawled out of the breach. Generations of pilots have fought for the sake of humanity, and many have died.Now, it's their turn.But piloting a giant robot is harder than it looks.
Relationships: Bakugou Katsuki/Kirishima Eijirou, Bakugou Katsuki/Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Izuku/Todoroki Shouto
Kudos: 5





	Taste your mettle

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! 
> 
> First off, all the ships and stuff will happen if I decide to write more on this. I have ideas, but I wanna see if people actually want this. Secondly, I've probably gotten some stuff wrong, but hey, this is my fic. My fic my rules :)
> 
> Have fun!

“Deku, the fuck do you think you’re doing?!”

Kaiju blood and rain was pouring through the ceiling of the Conn-Pod, hissing as it met the titanium floor. 

“It’ll work, I know it!”

Katsuki screamed through his teeth as they pushed against the overwhelming weight of the Kaiju. Metal screeched, sparks flew, and with a final heave, Spinejackal stumbled back into the sea. It righted itself immediately, opening it’s glowing maw to bellow at them. 

“Shut up! We don’t have _time_ for your-”

“My what? My actual ideas?! Grenade armed!” Together, they lobbed the grenade, the pin falling into the sea soundlessly. Braced for the explosion, they didn’t move an inch. 

“You know exactly what I was going to say, bastard. Oh, come on, how many can it take?!” Spinejackal was up and charging again, and the Paragon Bolt flung themselves sideways. 

“So say it! Come on Kacchan, you’re not a coward, are you? Switching to tank mode.”

With a series of shuddering clanks, layers of solid iron wrapped around their closed fists, pistons engaging and reengaging to form the monster that the Paragon Bolt could become. 

They turned, but Spinejackal was faster. Rows upon rows of serrated fangs pierced through their left shoulder, it’s mandibles catching the plating on their chest. It took eight consecutive punches to dislodge it. 

Yet another alarm added its voice to the chorus, the additional red light unnoticed in the already bathed Conn-Pod. 

“Fuck! If it does that again, it might hit our core. Engaging bronze knuckles.” 

The bronze knuckles were not bronze. Instead, they were titanium, meters thick and topped with lethal spikes. They shone in the lightning, brand new and untested. 

“Ready for my ‘bullshitty, half-baked, motherfucking idea’ yet?” 

They met the charging Kaiju with a jab hook cross, before kicking the damn thing sideways. 

“Nope. We’re too damaged, the Paragon would never make it. Fuck, we would never make it, Deku. We have no idea what that thing’s made of-” 

They intercepted the lunging Spinejackal’s open jaw with both fists, the spikes punching through the Kaiju’s soft palate. A few tips reappeared through the bottom jaw, spraying phosphorus blood. 

“Fuck yeah! We should use these more often!” Keeping their right fist, the one lodged in its upper jaw, as an anchor, they tore out the left fist the long way, cleaving its lower jaw in two. It screeched, writhing as its mandibles fell still. 

Brutally and efficiently, clamping onto what was left of the head, they pushed the fist deeper and deeper. They watched as flesh and thick blue blood swallowed the green metal slowly. Both boys grunted as they hit bone, and tried to push through it. 

“No use! It’ll be plated, too thick to break.” Midoriya gasped, both breathing heavily and almost in sync.

Something knocked them forward, holographic claws embedded in their right leg. Each talon was bigger than a jeep and much sharper than one too. Made of toughened bone, it pierced the Paragon with barely an effort. 

“Canned shit, this thing needs to _die!_ ” They swiped at the arm with their free hand, the points of the bronze knuckles ripping open flesh. Still, the Kaiju didn’t let go, only planted it’s monstrous feet and roared at them. 

“I agree, Kacchan! Come on, you know my idea is-”

Another swing of the knuckles proved to do the trick, and the beast disengaged to line up another charge. 

“No, Deku, that’s not how it fucking works! There’s always another way. _Always!_ Arming grenade, size five!”

A section of wall in the Conn-Pod rolled away, only to be replaced with another, slightly smaller section in a dull orange instead of green. 

“Kacchan, that’s our last five!”

They’d used four of their big boys in the last fight, blasting some category three to kingdom come after Phantom Fist had sent their S.O.S beacon. They were celebrating when the second beast crawled through the breach, and as the closest Jaeger by far, it was their mission to kill it. 

Even if it was a class four.

And they were facing it with less than half their weaponry. 

“We don’t have a choice, Deku! We need to blow it sky-high, before it can wear us down. Ready?”

Spinejackal dived out of the churning sea, snapping at air as the Paragon turned to dodge. Glowing blood trailed behind it like ribbons, splattering over the Paragon and clinging weakly to the surface of the water. You could almost see the Kaiju without the floodlights attached to the Jaeger’s torso, which was good as many of those lights had been torn off or broken.

“Ready! Arming in three, two-”

Their left leg buckled as the Kaiju slammed into it, pushing their centre of gravity over the edge. They fell, dragging a lethal fist to stop them from crashing entirely. 

“-one! Armed!” Midoriya yelled, and together they hurled it at the oncoming beast. It saw it coming, and scrambled to change direction, forearms bracing against the seafloor. 

The grenade didn’t hit its head, but it did hit its right flank, where it exploded on impact. Fire and Kaiju flesh shook the ocean, a bright flash in the dark rain-soaked night. An awful screech wailed through the air, loud enough to rattle skulls. Shards of bone punched through the Paragon’s armour. 

And yet, when the water fell and the smoke cleared, the monster was still standing, it’s chest open and lined with melted flesh and iron shrapnel. Half of its eyes were pouring down its face, the other half was straight from hell, narrowed, bleeding, full of fiery hate. 

“Fucking _shit._ ” Bakugou spat, shaking his head to dislodge the ringing in his ears. 

They stood, fists ready. “You said it, Kacchan. You said it.” 

Slowly, Spinejackal shifted back to its hind legs, hissing. Slowly, the tens of eyes locked onto the Paragon. Slowly, it took a lumbering step forward, the impact dislodging shrapnel with a fountain of blood. 

“Is now a good-”

“No, _Deku_ , it is not.” 

Their back foot planted into the basalt sea bed, they braced for another frontal charge, only to find Spinejackal rearing up to their left.

“FUCK-” 

With a noise like caged thunder, a talon shattered the Paragon’s visor, sending shards of reinforced glass everywhere. The metal shuddered as the creature squeezed, it’s other claws sinking through the outer plating. 

“DEKU!” Bakugou had felt the sharp pain in his arm and shoulder, he knew what it meant. His partner didn’t reply, only to grimace as he tested the damage. 

“I can still do this, Kacchan!”

“That-”

More talons burst through their right arm, severing pistons and sawing through the joint. The beast screeched defiantly, its inner ribs exposed, missing half its eyes but as angry and deadly as ever. 

“It’s gonna-” 

They both recognised the stance, the position, the intent. It was going to rip their arm off. Bakugou flicked a glance at Midoriya, red dripping from the shards of glass embedded in the cracks of the armour, embedded in his flesh. Still, his green eyes were alight with determination, the fire that hadn’t left his eyes since they were kids. 

“Kacchan, we _need-_ ”

“NO!”

“Oh for fucks sake-” 

A wailing siren pierced through the shock. _“Pilots out of alignment. Pilots out of alignment. Pilots out-”_

A flooding rush of pain and laughter and quiet rooms poured through Bakugou’s brain, but he stood down, let them wash over him. “Deku, the _FUCK_ do you think you’re doing?” 

_“-of alignment. Pilots out of alignment. Pilots out of alignment. Pilots-”_

Midoriya gritted his teeth, screaming as he pushed the right arm out from under the Kaiju’s grip. “Arming grenade, size three!” Another series of clicks and booms, another section of the wall replaced. 

_“-out of alignment. Pilots out of alignment. Pilots out of alignment.”_

“DEKU-” Bakugou clawed his way back into the link, trying desperately to force Midoriya to reason. 

_“Pilots out of alignment. Pilots out of align-”_

“ARMED!” And with a mighty roar, Midoriya wrenched the bomb down the Kaiju’s throat. Exhausted, he didn’t have the energy to try to remove it. 

Metal when flying everywhere, ripping holes in Spinejackal’s neck. The burst of fire lit up the beast like a lantern, smoke pouring through its wounds. Again their ears rang, again their bones shook. 

It was immediately clear their right arm was ruined. Neither of them needed the display to tell them that. The blast had completely ripped apart the Paragon’s armour, leaving the important mechanisms exposed and now obliterated. Unnoticed by all, molten metal dripped off the now mangled imitation of an arm, sizzling against the frigid air and sinking as iron blood dropped to the ocean floor. 

Two sets of eyes were locked on the Kaiju, waiting. Waiting. 

It didn’t move, not as the stump of the arm fell to their side, not as it fell into the dark water, not as all that was left of it was the glowing blood lathering the ocean surface.

It was dead. After all of that, it was dead.

“Deku-” Bakugou faltered as Midoriya slumped over, his helmet dangerously close to slipping off his head. “Shit, shit, shit, Deku come on, we’ve got to get back, come on Deku, come on-” 

“I’m still… here.” Step by slow step, the Paragon began the long trip back to base. It was clear that every movement cost the injured pilot immensely. He was bleeding, weak and getting weaker by the minute. The same thought crystalised in their minds at the same moment. 

They wouldn’t make it back.

They were hours from the base. Hours. And while Midoriya was determined, determination was no cure for blood loss. No cure for serious lacerations, for the strain of piloting the Jaeger divergently, even for that short moment. They had no idea how far away backup was. And even if there was backup, they would have to abandon the Jaeger, and that- that wasn’t an option. 

Neither was abandoning Midoriya. Which Bakugou couldn’t do anyway. 

They would just have to push through, for as long as possible. Hope backup was coming. Their long-range comms had been knocked out earlier in the fight. No way home, no way out, and no way to contact anyone. 

Left foot, right foot. Left foot, right foot. 

Neither of them spoke. Bakugou had nothing to say, not now at least, and Midoriya didn’t have enough energy to. It didn’t matter, not really, not when they could hear each other’s thoughts. 

Left foot, right foot.

Midoriya wasn’t scared. He never was, not even as he was sure to die of blood loss or strain. Even as kids he was fearless, following the blond without ever looking back.

Bakugou wasn’t scared either. He was angry. Furious. That move, if it was unsuccessful, could have cost them the battle. Hell, if he hadn’t been so stubborn they could have been back at base by now.

Left foot, right foot. 

They one thing they shared, the one thing they had in common that made them drift compatible was their minds. Sharper than sharp, each had the most formidable intellect the jaeger program had ever seen. 

Left foot, right foot.

Midoriya could only see the step in front of him. He took every opportunity for that step to be the last, brewing radical ideas in the heat of battle. But he didn’t realise the consequence of his pushing, didn’t realise how if he took a risk, then so did the Paragon. 

Left foot, right foot. 

Bakugou was the opposite. He thought only in the long term, playing battles like a game of steel chess. If he made a sacrifice, he made it with every loss calculated, the chance at winning at the forefront of his mind. But he didn’t take the big risks, so he didn’t get the big rewards.

Left foot, right foot.

The seniors in the program thought they would balance each other out. That they would grow off each other. Instead, they clashed, butting heads over the smallest of things. It had never cost them, not this much. Instead, they were usually the most efficient team, unafraid to vet each other’s ideas and critique methods.

Left foot, right foot.

But it was obviously getting worse. Both were getting frustrated with the other, and nowadays their ideas often directly contradicted each other. 

Left foot, right foot.

It had been a long while now, long enough that it was probably a miracle that Midoriya was still hanging on to consciousness. The body of the Kaiju was long behind them, but the base was long ahead.

Left foot, right foot.

With no landmarks, no points on the horizon, it felt like they were making no progress at all. Whenever they stepped into the Paragon, the one thing they could agree on was the way it made them feel. Like they could move mountains. Like they could traverse continents in a mere day. 

A far cry from what they were feeling now.

Left foot, right foot.

Now it felt like they were dragging the mountain behind them. Their feet were encased in concrete, their arms clad in cast iron. Each footfall pulled at their bones and their hearts. Each meter drew more and more blood from Midoriya’s body. 

Left foot, right foot. 

The storm was receding, the waters below them slowly transitioning from a blackish grey to the blue of the normal world. Green eyes watched the water with a quiet focus, but marron were locked onto the horizon, their goal.

Neither knew if they were going in the right direction. Neither asked. 

Left foot.

The ringing had finally left Bakugou’s ears, only to be replaced with the deluge of sirens and alarms. Warily, he took his gaze from the dark sky to the flickering displays. Major damage to the torso and core protection. Major damage to both legs. Major damage to the Conn-Pod.

Right foot. 

Low on ammo. Three grenades remaining. Foreign substance collecting in wiring and hydraulics. Pilot damaged. Pilot disconnect imminent. One by one, Bakugou dismissed the alerts, the wailing shutting off. He blinked against his rising headache, eyes settling on the horizon once again.

Left foot.

A dark shape blocked out the stars. “Come on Deku.” If they squinted, they could see the recognisable shape of their home base, the Japanese shatterdome, Alpha. “Come on, come on!” 

Right foot. 

Lights winked into existence as the horizon scrolled around, dark shapes that he dismissed as soon as he saw. That wasn’t his goal, that didn’t matter. All that mattered was Alpha. Home.

Left foot. 

Sweat was trickling down his face, his head was pounding, but he kept going. He had to keep going. It was so close, just within reach. He had to keep going. Another alarm had popped up but his eyes were watering too much to read it.

Right foot. 

The mountain had grown bigger, each step seemed like a greater effort. “Don’t give up now Deku, you stay fucking with me!” He roared, spit flying from his jaw. He was so close, he couldn't give up now. He just had to keep walking. 

Left foot. 

He grunted, fighting off the blinding pain behind his eyes. Just one more step. And then another. And then another. Ignore the pain. Ignore the alarm. Ignore him. Keep going. That was all that mattered. That he kept going. 

Right foot.

A helicopter flew past before righting itself, it’s searchlight briefly scanning the Jaeger before settling shakily on the Conn-Pod. Occasionally the light glared through the shattered glass, but Bakugou didn’t flinch. 

Left foot. 

Sweat was pouring off his face in hot waves, thickly dripping down. His head hurt. Fuck, his head really hurt. It was like someone had stabbed his cranium from behind, the point of the blade emerging right between his eyes, blood flowing from it and joining the waterfall off his cheek.

Right foot. 

It hurt so much, it was like he was no longer attached to his body. Walking had become instinct at this point, but now he needed to make a conscious effort to send the signal down to his stone legs. 

Left. 

He tipped and leaned, almost throwing the Paragon over. “Fuck.” Lines were blurring, shapes overlapping.

Right.

He was pretty much blind at this point, relying on his last sighting. He wasn’t even sure what he was walking to. 

_“-bravo three to Paragon Might, do you-”_

Voices were pushing through the static, but they were like the buzzing of flies. Katuski pushed them aside. 

Forward. That was all he knew. He had to keep going.

_“-to Paragon Might, do you copy?! Paragon Might, come in!”_

The pain was so bad. So bad. He couldn’t think. 

_“Damnit, Paragon, say something!”_

The break in protocol snapped Katsuki back a little. “Fuck… off.” He croaked out, barely able to hear himself. Something was cracking his head open, he was sure of it. He could hear his skull breaking, feel the blood pouring down his back. 

_“Paragon! Can you copy?”_

Katsuki sucked air down his throat. “Copy.” He let it out. 

_“Paragon, you need to power down. We can take it from here.”_

Power down? 

_“Paragon, can you hear me? Power down immediately! You’re in serious danger of major brain damage!”_

Brain damage? Right. The Jager. Deku. 

Deku.

“Dis.. disconnect… pilot.” He ground out, spitting a glob of- something onto the already soaked conn-pod floor. 

_“Disconnecting pilot. Shutting down Jager. Engaging emergency protocols.”_

All at once, Katsuki was on the floor, liquids soaking through his pilot suit as he finally gave in to the pain.


End file.
